The Athenia was Torpedoed on the First Day.

When the war had begun, I was back in England. And at that time, I had been moved from this cruiser - we came back from the East Indies - I’d been stationed in a British destroyer called Fame, F-A-M-E, HMS Fame and she was in Scotland. The day the war began, we were off Ireland and on our way south. The ship called the Athenia was torpedoed on the first day and our ship, Fame, we were one of the destroyers that went to the rescue of the survivors of the Athenia. So, I was lucky enough to be in the action on the first day of the war. I was a sub-lieutenant and sub-lieutenants in the navy got all the dogsbody jobs. As you get senior, you get more grand titles and have less to do if you’re careful. At that time, I was a watch keeper. The ships operate 24-hours a day, so every four to eight hours you change. The crew changes to keep it going. So that was my main duty at that time, just being a watch keeper. In other words, it was my turn to drive the ship. That’s what the officer of the watch does. And I was also the anti-submarine officer in charge of the anti-submarine detection equipment. We didn’t do anything to the submarine, it got away, but we helped the survivors. There were about 130 people killed when that ship sank. She was a normal passenger ship and she was on her way to Canada.